Microsoft makes promises to ARM developers

Microsoft has been promising developers that developing a Metro-style application for upcoming Windows ARM PCs is the same as developing Metro applications for PCs running Intel processors.

Writing in his blog, Microsoft corporate vice president Jason Zander pledges an “identical development experience.” He said that developing an app for Windows on ARM is the same as developing a Metro-style app for x86/64 PCs.

The same Metro-style app will run on either hardware. Many Visual Studio methods used to build other application types will carry over to the construction of Metro-style apps.

He said that Microsoft's upcoming Visual Studio 2012 IDE will support ARM development and it will not matter if you use JavaScript, C++, Visual Basic, or C#. “If you've built a Metro-style app that targets x86/x64, then you already know how to build one that targets ARM," Zander said.

However with Visual Studio still consigned to only running on Intel machines, developers will need to use remote debugging, Zander said. They must first install Remote Tools for Visual Studio RC onto the ARM device. A developer license for ARM also is needed, he added.